The Frostwyrm
The Ice-Dragon of the Deep Glaciers
The Frostwyrm is the great ice-dragon of the deep glaciers, guardian of cold hoards — the most ambiguous beast of the Bestiary. In some tales it is a fearsome servant of the Cold that guards holy places and devours the warm; in others it is a beast of the deep that hoards (the Avarice) and must be overcome, for it keeps the cold to itself rather than for the flock.
The Two Readings
This double nature makes the frostwyrm a teaching-creature on the difference between keeping and hoarding: the same cold that, given for others, is holy becomes a curse when clutched. The crusading The Order of the Blue Vigil took the slain frostwyrm as its emblem — conquered greed, the dragon of the heart subdued. In The Revelation of Ice a deep-wyrm of meltwater appears among the warm beasts of the end, distinguished from the holy creatures of the Cold.